Zaanse Schans Favorite Tips by tompt Top 5 Page for this destination

outside toilet

Favorite thing: In the old days it was very normal to have the toilet outside. It was mostly built over the water so the waste could wash away immediately.
Although this a good example it is no longer used.

landscape

Favorite thing: The ancient dutch polders with swampy areas and wet meadows is home to many birdspecies and special plants.
The are is mostly below sealevel therefor the ground is always wet.

Since the 17th century this area is important. Windmills for industrial use and to mill the water out of the polder dominated the skyline. Whalers left from Zaandam to the northern seas and merchants from all over came here in their boats to trade. In 1697 the Russian tsaar Peter the Great came to Zaandam to learn about shipbuilding.

Today there still is much industry here. But you can also enjoy the green wetlands. Tour the area by bike, or in a rowing boat, it is worth it!

Windmills

Favorite thing: At the Zaanse Schans it looks like time stood still. In the 18th century the area (Zaanstreek) was one of the first industrial areas of the world. In hunderds of windmills they made linseed oil, sniff tabaco, paint and mustard. But as times changes the windmills were no longer usefull. Other machines, not depending on wind, took over. The windmills were tore down. But luckely for us some were saved and became monuments.
The windmills of the Zaanse Schans belong to that catagory.

Windmills at the Zaanse Schans:
- mustard mill, De Huisman (before 1802)
- saw mill, De Gekroonde Poelenburg (1869)
- paint mill, De Kat (1664-1696)
- oil mill, De Zoeker (1607)
- oil mill, De Bonte Hen (reconstruceted 1975)